Olivia Strittmatter - Buddhism

 Blog Post 13 - Topic of my Choosing 4

Week 13

        For this blog post I’m going to be writing my second post about the topic of my choosing, which is: comparing how different religions interact with nature and the ecology that surrounds that followers of each religion. The religion that I’m writing about this week is Buddhism. Buddhism is a religion founded in India around 2,500 years ago, it follows the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. Buddhists believe that there is a cycle of being born, getting old, dying, and being reborn until one reaches Nirvana.

From a Buddhist perspective, any attempt to fix the current ecological problems that we face must be based on three aspects: behavior, mind, and understanding, rather than by scientific advancements. The above three aspects are interrelated and support each other. People must understand the causes and effects of environmental change, as well as change their mind on their behavior, and thus change their behavior/actions.

The first aspect: behavior, consists of internal and external changes to human behavior. First, there must be rules and regulations that are set up to protect the environment and prevent harmful actions towards the environment. Then people must make the conscious decision to protect the environment; this usually results from religious or spiritual beliefs.

The second aspect: mind, consists of the love and appreciation for nature and the natural environment. This leads to the desire to protect the environment rather than exploit nature. Humans must minimise the idea that nature is there to serve humanity, and is an obstacle to development, but rather that nature is an important part of human existence and development. 

The third aspect: understanding, in order to determine how to heal the environment we must understand the impact that we are having on the world. We must understand the damage we’re doing, and be able to figure out how to change it.

Buddhists also live by practices that are environmentally friendly. Some such practices include only using/consuming what is necessary to live. To live in harmony with nature and wildlife. As well as to use nature wisely in ways that do more good than harm.

I think that Buddhism is similar to the previous religions I’ve written about: Jainism, ancient paganism, and Wicca. You can go back and read my previous posts to see what they’re about and their similarities. Buddhism is similar to them though because they believe in not bringing harm to others or the environment, similar to Wiccans. Buddhism is different from Wicca though because the Buddhists are trying to reach Nirvana, while the Wiccans are trying to protect the environment for the sake of the environment itself.

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